Waiting
by Aeris - Goddess of Music
Summary: After James and Lily died, what much was there to do except wait for those that they love. Here they are joined by the people in their family who lost their lives.


**Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters. That honor belongs with Jo Rowling. **

**A/N – I had this in my head today and I really wanted to put it on paper. Hope you all like it. **

**Waiting **

It was cold, and too bright. He was scared and he had no idea where he was. He felt hopeless. James Potter lay on the cold ground, shocked and riddled with fear. His glasses were askew near the end of his nose, and he had a cut on his cheek from his battle with Lord Voldemort. Mist swirled around him, like dry ice and snow. It was peaceful but upsetting.

He kept his eyes clamped shut. He didn't want to open them, opening them would mean that he had failed. Failed to protect his wife and son. Failed in his choice of Peter as Secret Keeper. Fail to save his Lily, his Harry and his own life.

Finally he realised he had no choice but to admit that he had lost. He opened his eyes slowly and blinked, not use to the bright white light around him. He sat up hesitantly, looking around.

"Where am I?" He said out loud, his voice echoing in the nothingness. The mist, although not going away completely, dissipated to reveal his location. "Kings Cross Station?" James wondered. "And it's clean."

Suddenly everything came flooding back to him. Where was Lily? Where was Harry? He couldn't hear anything. There was no sound of Lily's voice calling out for him. There was no coo of his son's cries. There wasn't the sound of a train in sight.

"I've failed them." He said, dejectedly. His heart hurt with sorrow and grief, breaking slowly, pain overflowing. He was in excruciating agony and he felt like he deserved it. Suddenly he heard a cry. A cry of pain and suffering. Of distress and anguish. It was Lily. She had arrived a few feet away from him.

"James!" She cried, looking around her, tears streaming down her face. James, still sitting, scrambled up onto his knees and crawled over to her. She relaxed slightly when she felt his arms wrap themselves around her shoulders and waist. "I couldn't… I tried… We failed… Harry." She tried to say, but her sobs were taking over her. She shook with unshed tears, more still flowing from her eyes.

"Shhhh, I know Lily. I know." James whispered, heartache filled his voice and he held her tighter. "I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

They didn't say anything more for a while. They just sat and waited. They didn't know if they would see their baby boy again. Surely he was dead. No infant could survive a curse as strong as 'Avada Kedavra', especially when it was being delivered by Lord Voldemort.

Still they heard no cries of Baby Harry. Half an hour had passed and still no sign of a tuft of black hair crawling around in the mist of Kings Cross.

"Do you think he got away?" Lily murmured, longing in her tone.

"He's a baby, Lily. There's no way Harry can survive against Tom Riddle." James replied, looking crestfallen.

"Maybe someone came and got him? Maybe Sirius or Remus?"

"I hope so, Love." A sigh escaped his lips. "I'm praying for a miracle right now."

A tiny ray of hope glimmered on the horizon for James and Lily Potter, because their son was nowhere to be found in Kings Cross station. They knew in their hearts that their little boy was still alive and had been saved. They just didn't know that it was Lily that saved him.

"He's alive…" Lily breathed, relief washing through her anxious mind and body.

"Thank Merlin." And for the first time since arriving in their afterlives, James Potter cracked a smile knowing that Harry's heart still beat further. "What do we do now?"

"That should be obvious, James." said Lily, quietly, looking up at her husband. "We wait for Harry." James gazed into his wife's green eyes and nodded.

"We wait for Harry."

James and Lily still remained at Kings Cross, they never left. There they sat on a bench too clean, staring into each other's eyes, whilst listening for their son.

Years they waited, until fourteen of them had passed. They heard a scuffling, a groan and suddenly a man's voice echoed through the gloom of the train station.

"I always knew it would be Bellatrix that would kill me." The voice groaned.

"I know that voice." James whispered. He and Lily stood up and made their way over to the stranger, who was sitting cross-legged on the misty white floor. It turned out that it wasn't a stranger at all, but someone whom they had missed.

"Sirius?" Lily asked. "Is that you?" Sirius looked up, shocked, but his face broke out into a grin when he saw his best friend and someone who had been a sister to him in their last years.

"James? Lily?" Hope colored Sirius' voice and when the pair nodded, he jumped up and embraced his family.

When the tears of joy at seeing each other again had passed, James asked the question that had been burning in him ever since He and Lily had died.

"Harry?"

"Alive," said Sirius, and James and Lily felt a weight lifting off of their shoulders. Their son was alive. "But not happily." Sirius continued. "He misses you both, so much. And Petunia and Vernon aren't exactly treating him like they should." Lily's eyes went wide.

"Petunia? Why is my sister looking after my son?"

"Yeah, why didn't you take him, Padfoot?" James asked.

"I wanted too, believe me, Prongs I did. But Dumbledore wouldn't let me."

"You're his Godfather. In the event of mine and James' death he was supposed to go to you." Lily cried.

"Dumbledore took him to your sister," Sirius paused. "And I went after Peter."

Sirius explained everything. How he went after Peter. How the rat framed him for his murder. How he spent twelve years in Azkaban hoping against hope that Harry and Remus were okay. How he broke out and reconnected with his Godson and Best Friend again.

"How did it happen?" James asked.

"What, this?" Sirius said, point at himself and their location. James nodded. "Harry was tricked. Voldemort made him believe that I was in danger. In the end it was reversed, Harry was the one in danger and I couldn't sit around and not do anything. So the Order and I went to him…. And Bellatrix killed me. Finally pruning the bush that is her perfect family."

"I'm sorry, Padfoot." James murmured. Lily looked on with sad eyes, listening to his story.

"Nah, don't be." Padfoot sighed. "What do we do now?"

"We wait." said Lily.

Over the years Sirius, James and Lily caught up on all of the things they were meant to do before their untimely dismises. They lived, and loved, even if it was only at Kings Cross Station. And they waited some more.

Finally May 2nd came along and a lot of people started turning up at Kings Cross. Dumbledore had come and gone a year before, but they were not expecting so many in one day.

"Something must have happened." Lily said and she kept her eyes peeled for anyone she knew. A young voice sounded out and reached their ears.

"Sirius? Is that you?" Sirius looked over at the voice and he recognised it as soon as he saw the face that it had come from.

"Please, don't tell me that you're dead…" Sirius groaned. "Uhh, which one are you?"

"I'm Fred." said the Weasley twin as he walked over to join the Potters and Sirius.

"How did it happen?" James asked, and chuckled slightly when Fred Weasley's eyes grew wide. "James Potter." He said as he held out his hand. Fred took it, still in awe.

"Fred Weasley…. I can't believe it," he said, shaking hands with James and his wife and giving Sirius a hug. "You're still here?"

"We're waiting." Sirius said. "Come on, how did it happen?"

"Oh, Hogwarts fell on me."

"What?" Lily gasped.

"There's a battle going on down there right now. Voldemort wants Harry. Part of the building collapsed and landed on me while we were fighting."

"Oh my God!" she gasped again.

And the group grew. A few minutes after Fred had joined, Remus walked up to his old friends.

"This is quite a reunion." He said sadly, making them look up from the floor.

"Moony, what happened?" said James, giving his old friend a hug.

"Antonin Dolohov killed me… just as I was about to kill Fenrir." Remus sighed. More hugs went around and Remus was shocked at seeing Fred there, he could believe that such a young and carefree life had been ended.

"Remus!" called a female voice and Moony's head shot up and searched for the owner; he knew who it was of course… his wife. His eyes met hers and they ran to each other. He pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder.

"Nymphadora, why are you here? You shouldn't… What happened?" He mumbled into her hair, which was bright pink and fading.

"Bellatrix." Was all she said. The others who were looking on at the couple finally realised that Remus had finally found someone, even if it was Sirius' little cousin. Remus led Tonks over to the group and she burst into tears when she saw who was waiting. She hugged them all, even James and Lily though she didn't know them. "Teddy." she murmured.

"He'll be fine. He has Andromeda and Harry now." Remus said.

"Who's Teddy?" Sirius asked.

"Oh that's right," said Fred. "You don't know yet. They got married and had a baby."

"You were busy."

"Thank you, Sirius." Remus reprimanded.

Still they waited, ten minutes later, someone they didn't expect to see, met them in the gloom. Severus Snape walked up to them.

"I'm sorry." He apologised. He took a breath and explained. "I always was a double agent, but for the Order not the Death Eaters."

"I'm guessing Nagini did that." James said, pointing to the wound on the side of Severus' neck.

"Yes, on Voldemort's command."

"That's good enough for me." The former Marauder said and held out his hand. "Truce?"

"Truce." They shook hands and welcomed Snape into their group. And still they waited.

They finally knew it was over when Tom Riddle passed through. He looked relatively unharmed but he was angry and distressed. He stopped a few feet away and said,

"The Battle has been won… the boy lives." and he carried on walking.

Soon only Lily, James, Sirius, Fred, Remus, Tonks and Severus remained at Kings Cross Station. After many, many years had passed, he arrived, but not as the old man he had grown to be and died after a long life, but as the seventeen year old boy who save the World from evil.

Harry Potter.

And they welcomed him into their group with hugs and smiles. But the family still remained. They just had more people to wait for.

**The End**


End file.
